Smoke Signals
by imsmith
Summary: All her life Caryn has devoted herself to healing, not killing, so it's no surprise that the witches come to Caryn for help when a Vida is mortally wounded. But when Caryn is kidnapped by vampires with their own agenda, she may have to adopt a hazier path
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Adianna was in a mood to be irritable. It seemed like she'd been having a lot of those days lately—days that she expressed herself through increasingly vicious attacks on her marks. It also meant she'd come home with a lot more blood on her clothes—most of it someone else's. Adianna sighed, running her hand through tangled locks. She knew the reason why she'd been so on edge lately, and the reason's name was Sarah. Or it used to be. Before Sarah befriended a vamp, before his brother tried to bond her. Before she died and lived again. Before she became a vampire.

The memory was silver sharp in Adianna's mind, its edges as bright and painful as the blades in her sheaths. (_insert quote)_

In any other family, the Turning would have been a tragedy, but in this family, the Vida line born and bred on magic and hatred for the undead, it was treachery. Perhaps it would have been acceptable had Sarah killed herself upon awaking as a vamp, but Sarah had chosen life—or its facsimile—and it had shaken the Family to the core.

Sarah Tigress Vida was a witch born of one of the oldest lines of magic wielders in the world, and her death was grounds for blood bath against the vampires that turned her. She was also the daughter of the head of that line, and perhaps the greatest and most obsessive vampire hunters in the world Dominique Vida.

Tales of the coldness of Dominique Vida were already the stuff of legends, but Adianna knew that it was no coincidence that her mother declared war between the two preternatural parties mere nights after Sarah's death. For Dominique, her youngest daughter was dead. That Sarah had chosen the life of a leech over honorable death ground at Dominique like nothing else in the world could, and if such a life didn't kill her first, Dominique certainly would.

But for Adianna, the loss of Sarah, her baby sister, her reckless, irrational, stubborn, _wonderful_ little sister was worse than any wound sustained in battle. Dominique hardly seemed human sometimes, so focused on the extermination of vampires, that the bright spontaneity and simple humanity of her sister was like a warm bath. It always felt like there was a fire crackling when Sarah was around—she always burned the air around her with her emotions. It wasn't the best thing for a fighter to possess, but it was wonderful to be around.

It had been three months since Adianna had felt that fire, and now she burned with her own frustration, but it wasn't a fire that warmed her. On the outside, Adianna was better than ever—more in shape, more alert; she followed every protocol, every procedure to a t, but inside she was raging. She'd been cut and if she didn't find something to fill the gap soon, she'd bleed out, like a deer for the slaughter.

_Sarah. _She closed her eyes against the wash of pain, feeling its ripples shudder through her. It saved her life, for with her eyes closed, she almost didn't detect the vampires until too late.

They hit hard and fast, but Adianna was faster. Wielding her magic like a whip, she sliced through the consciousness of her attackers. Her blades were out (one from her back sheath, another from her waist, a third flew up from her boot as she lashed out at one of the leeches) and slicing through air and flesh before she had fully registered their presence. Two fell, but there were plenty to take their place. One, two, three, four…two more in the corner and at least four coming up to join them, which made at least ten. Ten vamps? How had they snuck up on her without her noticing? She should've noticed a third of their number within a mile of her, never mind ten within a few feet. One of her attacker's blades sliced her shoulder, and she cursed. She'd have to figure that mystery out later.

Her blades flashed again, and another fell, but there was a limit to what steel and magic could do. She was badly outnumbered, and the best she could hope for was that there would be other witches patrolling. Surely they would hear the commotion, even if they couldn't sense it. Adianna used her magic to disarm one of her assailants just before his blade reached her, but he continued his leap towards her unarmed. Entangled in his preternaturally strong limbs, she couldn't avoid the thrust to her ribcage. Two more blades thrust home to her kidneys and through a rib. Adianna felt the pop of her lung as the blade broke through the bone and into the now unprotected tissue. They were on her now, using teeth and blade alike as she fell. Her own blades hung limply in her hands now, but she pulled at every ounce of magic in her for one last punch. She didn't aim so much as explode, the air around her suddenly cleared of vampires as they scuttled off. Her blood spread slowly around her on the ground, dimly she felt it soak into her clothes, her hair. _Damn, _she thought, _that's gonna be a bitch to get out. _It didn't occur to her, as her blood pooled beneath her on the asphalt, that she might not live long enough to wash it out.


	2. Chapter 1: Shiftings

**Chapter One: Shiftings**

Caryn was battling with death, and she was losing. The shapeshifter bucked beneath her, trying to shift shape, but Caryn was having none of it. She channeled into him, willing him to stop his change to keep the dumb birdbrain from ripping out any more of his intestines. It was hard enough trying to put his insides back as a human, trying to heal him with her limited knowledge of crow anatomy would be even worse.

"Can't you…do something? Talk him out of changing or hold him down or something?" Caryn panted, struggling to keep the man-crow on the table. His friend, _or lover, _Caryn wondered, shrugged, apparently unconcerned with the fate of her companion, and continued picking at her nails. Caryn, nearly sitting on top of the man now quickly dove into his chi, visualizing and linking tissues together as quickly as she could. She had a better connection now, and with just a little more concentration, she could get him out of the danger zone…

The door banged open, shattering her focus and her grip on the shapeshifter slipped. She managed to stop his shift mere seconds before he shifted, but the little bit of intestine she'd managed to replace slithered out again. Caryn gave an exasperated sigh. Had she been a smaller person she would have glared at the newcomer, but that wasn't fair, she told herself. There was no way that they would have known she was in the middle an operation…even if she was in the medical room of PLACE and she'd placed the sign outside saying she was busy. Wresting the crow-shifter to the bench, she spared a glance for the visitor. She nearly sighed again seeing who it was—Ruby, one of Dominique's latest disciples, but that wouldn't be fair, either.

"Dominique needs you," Ruby declared, also oblivious to the struggle on the medical bed. "Now."

"If you'll just give me a moment…" Caryn had already found the threads of where she'd left off, using her energy to reconnect blood vessels, create new tissue, bind the old back together.

"She said not to dawdle with the lowlife scum who come in here." Now the female shapeshifter glanced up. _Great Mother, please let me finish this before these two have at each other _Caryn prayed _I can only handle one shape-shifting patient a night_. It wouldn't have hurt Ruby to have a little more tact…with that thought, threw her magic out like a net around the wounded shapeshifter. His skin reknit itself instantly, just like…well, magic. Caryn sat back with a satisfied sigh. There was a bright red scar where he'd been sliced open, but at least all his insides were inside now. His companion, seeing that he was healed, rushed over to him, cooing now. Caryn shut her eyes, trying not to feel bitter. _Maybe she just didn't like blood_ she reasoned.

Caryn turned to the sink to wash her hands. Gastrointestinal juices were always so drying on her skin.

"_Now _will you come?" Ruby demanded, not even attempting to hide her disdain for the healer. "Dominique says that you're too mushy, even for a Smoke." Behind her, the shapeshifters whispered, eyeing her. While there wasn't the same animosity between witches and shifters as there was between witches and vampires, few sides had much respect for a witch who couldn't fight—never mind that half of them wouldn't be living their continued existence without Caryn and those like her. It was a dog eat dog world in the vampire world, and Caryn was a goldfish. It hurt, the disdain, the contempt beneath every interaction—even the others in the Smoke line, known for healers and soft-hearted looked down at her, but she had dealt with it for years now. She found her peace in healing, not in hurting, and she took the good along with the bad of it.

"What does Auntie want me for?" Caryn wondered, throwing assorted supplies into a duffel bag. It was already packed with the basics, but when Dominique was involved, things tended to get out of hand, and she liked to be extra prepared just in case.

"Don't call her 'Auntie.'" Ruby looked scandalized. Dominique wasn't the type to send you Christmas cards in the mail, but it didn't make her any less family. Caryn shrugged; she was sure Dominique would tell her why she was needed now, right now, when she got there. She called over her shoulder at the shapeshifters.

"No fights with three-hundred-year-old vampires for a week! Or don't blame me if you rip yourself open again!" Ruby sighed exaggeratedly.

"I don't know why _you _have to come. I can think of loads of people better off than _you _for this job." Caryn struggled to keep up. Ruby wasn't hampered by medical supplies, but Caryn was, and that last healing had taken a lot out of her.

"So you do know why she called me. Is it about Sarah, because I don't know where she went after…"

"It's not about some leech," Ruby cut her off. Caryn was about to protest. She was the only one who didn't think Sarah was wrong to have chosen as she did. "It's about Adianna. She's dying. She was ambushed about an hour ago, and we think someone from the inside helped them do it."


	3. Chapter 2: Deal Breaker

**Chapter 2: Deal Breaker  
**

Caryn didn't speak as they rushed down the streets, taking shortcuts where they could through the alleys. She had a lot to think about. Adianna, dying? The pride and joy of the Vida line, nigh untouchable by witch or vampire alike—dying? And one of their own involved in it? It seemed improbable. Caryn sped up, her pace almost matching Ruby's. She had made a promise to Sarah, before she left.

"_Dominique will…well, she'll never forgive me" Sarah shook her head, her blonde hair tumbling around her face, almost as bright as her aura. "But Adianna…Caryn, you've got to make sure she's all right."_

"_After trying to keep you in one piece all the time, it'll be easy." Sarah smiled at her, the first real smile she'd ever shown to Caryn. _

"_Thanks," she whispered. And then she was gone._

Caryn clutched her duffel closer. Adianna _had _to be all right. She was so concentrated in her thoughts that she didn't register Ruby's sudden halt until she ran into her.

"What— Caryn began, when three vampires dissolved from the darkness, spreading themselves in a half circle facing them. Caryn turned to find three more vampires closing in behind them. Her pulse sped up, and her stomach turned as the vampires registered her fear…and enjoyed it.

"Ruby," she whispered. "These are the vampires that attacked Adianna."

"How do you know?" she asked, forehead wrinkling.

"I can feel the imprint of Adianna's blade in their blood. No other witch except for Dominique can wield a Vida blade like that, but Dominique prefers a sword these days. Besides, I can see her aura in them." Caryn's voice trembled. "They fed off her, didn't they?"

Ruby's lips just tightened in response.

"Ruby— " Caryn began. One of the vamps stepped forward, cutting her off as effectively as if he had slapped her.

"We've come for the little witch." Caryn could see his white teeth flash in the moonlight. A witch, a true witch of the Vida and Smoke dynasty wouldn't have been terrified but Caryn couldn't stop a shiver from going up her spine.

"Vayn." Ruby muttered under her breath. She raised her voice to snap at the vampire---Vayn, Caryn guessed. "We're both witches Fang Boy," Ruby sidled into a defensive position and her knives snicked out of their sheathes and into her hands. Caryn had a small bottle of pepper spray in her bag, but there was no way she would be able to get to it fast enough to fight them off. Besides, she would be lucky if it would make the vampires so much as sneeze.

"'Fang Boy?' Is that really the best you've got?" Ruby started forward, but the vamp held up his hand. "Easy Wand Girl," he smirked as Ruby tightened "I meant the little Smoke cowering behind you."

"Me?" Caryn squeaked.

"Her?" Ruby demanded.

"Give her over now, and I promise I won't have to break your spine and suck the marrow out of your bones. Though I'll admit," he said, his eyes growing darker the dim light "I much prefer the second option."

"Over my dead body." Ruby crouched, planting herself in front of Caryn.

"I was really, really hoping you'd say that." The vamp lashed out, knocking Ruby off her feet before he'd finished his sentence. The other vamps circled Caryn and she backed up, holding her bag in front of her like a talisman.

Meanwhile Ruby slashed at the main vamp's feet, scoring blood on his thigh, but that was all she got before he wrapped on pale hand around her throat and lifted her up in the air. Ruby's legs flailed and the vamp closed his eyes as if in ecstasy.

"Stop!" Caryn cried. The vampire holding Ruby looked at her, still lifting the other witch aloft. "I'll go, I'll _go._ Put her down."

"You're coming whether this one dies or not." The vamp lifted Ruby a fraction higher. "Now just sit tight, I'll deal with you in a minute little Smoke."

"No!" Fear made Caryn's voice stronger than her normal soft tones. "I'm saying I'll come with you—peacefully—but only if you let her live. And…I have a promise to fulfill before you do anything else. But I will go with you so _put her down now." _

"No offense to you little Smoke, but forgive me if Single Earth's little pawn doesn't inspire the greatest amount of fear in my belly. Why don't you go wait in the corner like a good little girl while I finish up here?" The other vampires closed in around Caryn, one ripped her medical bag from her while the others twisted her arms painfully behind her back.

"You don't fear me?" Fear and pain added an edge of hysteria to her voice. "Well you should be—Vayn, is it? I may be a healer for Single Earth, but do you really think the Smokes would be so defenseless? I can stop your heart from beating even the few beats it needs to survive—and I will if you don't put her down. I work at Single Earth to protect lives, not watch other people destroy them." Vayn looked at Caryn, trying to peer into her mind, but Caryn had been trained to keep her thoughts to themselves. _Great Mother, please let this work. _If Vayn could tell she was bluffing, he would snap Ruby's neck in an instant—and probably Caryn's the moment after.

The seconds dragged on, and Ruby's struggles had diminished to erratic twitching. At last, still looking at Caryn the entire time, he dropped the other witch to the ground.

"Who knew that the Smokes had some spine in them after all?" he muttered. He strode over and grabbed Caryn's chin and forced it up so she was looking into his eyes. With both her arms still pinned behind her back, she had no choice but to endure his corpse cold touch.

Behind him she could hear Ruby's rasping voice. Caryn was relieved that she was still alive after all that time, until she realized that Ruby was wheezing "Traitor" over and over again. Vayn squeezed her chin painfully, bringing her focus back to him. She could see his eyes dilating as he sensed her fear.

"However, I can't allow you to shut down my heart before I deliver you." She never even sensed his mental attack until it robbed her of her thoughts and sent her plunging into darkness.


End file.
